Secrets of the Past
by xXNekoNinjaXx
Summary: Nel and Albel get separated from the group and have to find their way back. However, taking shelter in a abandoned castle to avoid a storm, Nel discovers that there may be a link between her and the castle, and that her life may be in grave danger.
1. Chapter One

Nel stood, staring down the blue haired boy in front of her.

He had dragged her off to the side of the group to propose the most preposterous idea that she had ever heard in her entire life time. And she figured that it was a good idea that he had pulled her away from the rest of the group to avoid causing a scene within the larger group, because a scene would have definitely been made.

She came to the conclusion that Fayt had completely lost his mind somewhere since they had gotten themselves completely lost within the labyrinth of the newly discovered Urssa Cave Temple.

She hadn't really enjoyed the thought of entering the cave in the first place, there was a peculiar energy radiating from everything around them, some form of strange magical energy. She didn't trust it one bit.

She shook her head at the thought; cowardice was not in her nature at all. She had accepted the fact that there was far too much for one person alone to comprehend in the world as of late anyway, so why not suck it up and deal with the ominous magical energy anyway? Was it not their duty as the "heroes of the universe" to not be nervous or hesitant about anything anymore?

Now that she thought about all that had happened as of late, beating the creator, Luther, getting hopelessly lost within the maze of the previously unexplored cave, nearly getting killed by all sorts of different things, and coming to the four-way fork in the cave wall in front of them, Nel was, more than anything else, annoyed.

"Nel," Fayt whispered to her, out of earshot from everyone else. "You are the only one who can keep him in check."

But what irked her the most was that she was being forced to explore one of the forks in the cave alone with Albel Nox, the one person that seemed to get on her last nerve without even so much as opening his mouth.

"Why can't _you_ go with him?" she argued back.

"Because, I don't really want Adray alone with either Sophia or Maria," he said, and to exaggerate his point he pointed over to the large man who was absentmindedly staring at Mirage's behind with a smirk as she bent over her Klausian partner, Cliff, as she expertly healed a large gash on his shoulder, given to him courtesy of a rather feisty monster that they had just defeated.

Nel placed a hand to her temple, she was starting to get a headache. "What about Cliff?"

"I don't think that either Cliff _or_ Albel would make it out of the tunnel alive," Fayt said, shaking his shaggy hair from his eyes. "Nel, please. I can trust you more than anyone else to be able to keep your temper under control in a situation like this."

Nel glared at him with her emerald eyes for what seemed like an eternity. She closed her eyes and heaved a great sigh that seemed to echo off of the walls around them, "Fine. But you owe me more than you can ever imagine."

Fayt smiled and lightly touched her shoulder in gratitude, "Thank you Nel."

"Woltar said that we can basically do what we please with him, so don't you think for a second that I won't hesitate to incapacitate him if the need arises," Nel said while following the younger boy back to the group.

Fayt turned around and gave her a crooked smile, "Don't get too carried away Nel."

He laughed to himself when Nel went into a fit of muttering and then faced the group to give orders. Since when he become the unspoken leader, he could never be too sure, but he accepted the responsibility without too much complaint.

"Okay everyone, here's what's going to happen: Maria and Sophia will take the left most fork. Cliff and Mirage will take the right most. Nel and Albel will take the second to left. And finally, Audrey and myself will take the second to right fork," he looked around at his companions, his eyes stopping upon Albel, and decided to add, "Any questions or comments?"

Albel's sneer of disapproval, although hidden in the shadows while he leaned against the cave wall, was highly visible to Fayt, being as he was expecting some form of stubborn retaliation from the tall warrior. He was lucky it was only a silent scowl rather than an extravagant display of his colorful vocabulary.

"Alright then," Fayt said after there were no interjections, "Let's get going. We'll meet back here in about three hours. Good luck everyone, and be careful."

With that said the assigned couples headed towards their designated tunnel. All except Nel and Albel that is.

"Are you going to stand there all day staring at the ground?" Albel said irritably to the magenta haired woman in front of him.

Nel looked up suddenly, she had been silently cursing under her breath and hadn't noticed that everyone had left. She gave Albel a glare and began to walk in the direction of the tunnel that was theirs.

"Let's go then," she said, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel, trying her best to not lose her temper, "And you better not try anything funny."

She heard Albel give a disgusted snort, "Like I would ever have any desire for Aquarian trash like you."

Nel shot a glance at the Glyphian captain but decided to ignore the bait that he had set for her, he was trying to lure her into an argument.

"I'm not going to fight with you Albel Nox," she stated simply, turning to see his reaction.

He had a slight frown on his face, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. He then shrugged his shoulders and walked a few steps past Nel, into the entrance of the tunnel while fidgeting with the handle of his katana.

"Hmph."

Nel shook her head and followed her unfortunate companion into the darkness of the tunnel.

Great, she thought. Their exploration had barely been a few steps from the main cavern and they had already begun to annoy each other. She silently prayed that this wasn't a premonition of the future.

They had walked for what seemed like forever in the dark void of a tunnel, the only light source that they had was one small glow stone that hardly provided any light at all. They where lucky that they hadn't run into any monsters yet, Nel wasn't sure what they would do if they had an encounter with an unfriendly life form at this point. The tunnel was too narrow and the roof was too low, making fighting very difficult, if not impossible.

As for Albel, well, only the mental picture of her stabbing him in the side could sooth her mind about that topic. They had been slinging snide remarks, insults, arguments, and curses at each other ever since they had began their journey, leaving Albel slightly amazed that the conservative Aquarian knew some of the words that she was calling him.

Nel kept cursing Fayt in her mind for ever talking her into this. How he had actually managed to do such a thing with such little effort was still beyond her. She just assumed it had something to do with her gratitude for him helping her defend her country and even so far as to protect her planet.

But all the same, damn him for this.

She glared at the back of Albel's head. She really wanted nothing more than to knock him unconscious and finish the exploration by herself. She would be much better off that way anyhow.

Albel, realizing that the Aquarian was watching him through many years of trained practice due to people constantly staring at him when they thought he wasn't looking, turned around and faced her.

"What?" he growled at her.

Nel, startled by his sudden movement, made a quick move for her daggers. Calming down, she stood straight and stared at the Glyphian.

"What yourself," Nel said, snatching away the glow stone and walking past him, embarrassed that she had been caught simply staring at him… well, glaring at him. Of course she would never admit that however.

Albel was annoyed to his last nerve.

They had been walking for over five hours. They where supposed to meet back with the group two hours ago.

"I blame you for this."

Nel turned around and glared at the warrior, "I understood it the first time and I certainly understand it now, being the thirteenth time. So will you quit saying that!"

Albel watched the fuming woman; her face the same hue as her hair.

"I blame you for this."

He turned his back to her and peered down the tunnel. They had taken a wrong turn somewhere on their way back. They hadn't known that the tunnel branched off into more, separate tunnels, so when they came to a two way fork on their way back, they could only guess which tunnel to take, and since Nel had refused to hand over the glow stone, she chose which tunnel to take, unfortunately, she had selected wrong.

He spun around when he felt a small pang of pain on the back of his head. He saw a minute movement on the ground and noticed a small pebble settling itself on the ground. He glowered at Nel and rubbed the back of his head.

"What was that for!" he growled.

"Just shut up," she replied, "If we turn around we can try the other tunnel."

She started to backtrack and paused when she heard a slight rumble. Small rocks and debris started to fall from above her head. The rumbling grew louder and the ground began the shake beneath her. Larger rocks began to fall and the smaller ones came more quickly.

What was happening?

She felt a tug on her wrist and then felt her whole body jerk backwards with immense strength. She was horrified when a marble sized rock collided with her hand, knocking the glow stone from her grasp. Before it was completely buried she saw the entire roof of the tunnel in the one direction collapse, trapping them within with no light source.

Nel let her arm fall to her side when Albel let go of her wrist and stared in the direction of the cave in. She cringed when she heard "I blame you for this," from the darkness at her side.

"Now what do we do?" Nel asked, feeling her way to the rock pile.

There was only silence in response and she began to grow nervy. This was all her fault, she though to herself as she touched a large boulder. But maybe she could find a way out if she searched hard enough.

She placed her foot on the boulder and hauled herself up a little higher and felt for an opening. Maybe the cave in hadn't quite sealed the tunnel all the way.

She placed her hand on a boulder above her head and put her foot on a new rock. As she began to lift herself upwards she was alarmed when she felt her foot slip out from underneath her and felt herself falling backwards.

She was even more alarmed to feel herself land against something firm, yet soft.

Albel.

Her heart was beating from the shock of the fall, she wasn't that high up, so the impact would have only knocked the wind out of her and maybe bruised her bottom a little, but what had her so shaken was the fact that Albel had caught her.

"Are you _trying_ to kill yourself?" Albel asked after righting the Aquarian and stepping away, "because I can assist you in that." That was the second time he had saved her from a painful fate within the last five minutes.

"I was looking for a way out," she defended herself.

"Your hopes are too high," Albel stated.

"Well, its better than doing nothing. What do you suggest we do?" Nel demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

There was a little moment of silence and then, "We continue in the only direction that we can go."

"With what light? It's pitch black!" Nel argued, although knowing that they had no other choice but to continue on.

"Use your runology or something," Albel snorted at her.

Nel thought about it, that wasn't too bad of an idea, it was better than nothing anyway.

She focused on a fire spell and made a small flame in her hand. She knew it couldn't last forever, but for now it was a beautiful sight.

She looked at Albel and watched him make an over exaggerated, mocking bow, gesturing for her to lead the way.

Nel glared at him as she passed him and started down the tunnel, this time being more cautious about her surroundings.


	2. Chapter Two

Hours had passed before they decided to take a break. Nel was starting to feel a little weak from keeping the flame in her hand lit. It was eating up all of her energy, not to mention walking what seemed to be four miles didn't help either.

They had entered a large cavernous room, Nel's fire casting shadows every which way across the high walls, and along the large ceiling.

It felt wonderful to be able to sit down and rest her feet. She watched Albel pace the room, restless to be stopping.

"Why don't you sit down and rest?" Nel asked after a few minutes, eyes following the pacing man to the other side of the chamber.

"We don't have time to rest, we have to keep moving and try to find a way out of here. Incase you haven't noticed, we have no food or water, so we can't stay here for too long," he retorted, stopping to glare at her and then walking in the direction of a different tunnel on the other side of the large room, opposite of the tunnel that they had arrived from.

Nel reluctantly lifted herself from the boulder that she had been sitting on, feeling a little wobbly from lack of energy. Damn little fire, she mumbled as she walked in the direction of the new tunnel, you're draining me of too much energy.

Albel snorted at her when she had walked up to him, "You are a pathetic excuse of a warrior, tired already?"

"You try keeping a fire lit in your palm for hours on end and see if you don't get tired faster than usual," she spat at him and stormed past him into the darkness of the tunnel.

He let out a 'Hmph', but aside from that kept quite and followed the Aquarian down the tunnel.

There was light in the distance. Nel wasn't sure if she was just delirious and simply seeing things, or if there was indeed light in front of them.

She tuned to the Glyphian behind her to see if he saw it too, and by the relieved look on his face, she knew that he saw it too.

Albel, annoyed that she had stopped, walked past her and made his way to the light source. Although he appeared indifferent, he was amazed at what he saw in the new chamber.

It was a massive hallowed out room, large walls looming above him, and a ring of night sky overhead. The only way out was to climb the towering walls.

Albel's attention turned from the sky when he heard the soft babbling of water to his right. He walked over to the wall of the cavern and peered down at the ground, there was a pathetically small stream of water that made a 'U' shape as it appeared from the wall and meandered back into the darkness of the rock.

He stooped to inspect it and after coming to the conclusion that it was safe, took a long drink from the clear water.

Standing once more, he turned to see Nel standing in the center of the cavern, staring up at the stars. She seemed to sway a little as she stood, she also looked a little faint.

"What's wrong with you?" he inquired after he made his way to the center of the cavern.

Nel simply looked at him crossed her arms, "Nothing's wrong. Why do you ask?"

Albel shrugged his shoulders and walked over to a wall of the cavern and inspected the walls, trying to determine how difficult it would be to climb out.

Nel found her way over to the small stream and helped herself to the water, instantly feeling a little better. She suddenly felt not only weak, but also overwhelmingly tired… and hungry.

She found her way to the center of the cavern and sat down, stretching her legs out in front of her and rubbing her ankles as she watched Albel inspect the walls. She wondered if Fayt and the others were looking for them.

She couldn't help herself anymore and laid herself down on the ground and closed her eyes.

"It won't be too difficult of a task to get out of here," Albel called from the wall. He turned around when there was no response only to find the Aquarian fast asleep in the middle of the cavern.

Albel had wanted to climb out of the cavernous room that night, but it didn't look like that wasn't going to be happening. Observing Nel, he decided that sleep wasn't too bad of an idea after all. They'd just have to make their way out first thing in the morning.

Nel felt warmth on all of her limbs. She smiled happily and stretched when she realized it was the sun. Apris, how she had missed it, never again would she take the beautiful sun for granted.

Opening her eyes and sitting up, she saw Albel sleeping on his side close to where she had fallen asleep. She wondered if she should wake him up or not.

Glancing around her, she realized that she wanted nothing more than to get out of this godforsaken cave as quick as possible. She glanced down at the sleeping swordsman and nudged him none too gently with the toe of her boot.

"Get up," she said as he groaned and opened his eyes.

He sat up and rubbed his bare midriff where he had been rudely jabbed with a boot.

He cursed at the Crimson Blade and stood up, stretching the sleep from his limbs and then made his way over to the wall next to where Nel stood.

"Get out of my way wench," he muttered, pushing past her.

"Someone's in a foul mood," Nel teased, knowing she was playing with a time bomb.

"Shut up," he growled, turning to face her. "If we're going to climb out, I suggest that we do it over there," he pointed to a chunk of wall that seemed to have solid hand and feet rests.

After a moment or two of loud bickering they decided that Albel would be the first to try to climb out. He did so with little problem and Nel watched him, silhouetted against the sun, look around once he had reached the top.

"What are you waiting for?" He yelled down at her after he turned his attention back to the magenta haired woman.

Nel gave a final look to the cavern and bidding farewell to all of its torment, she began to scale the wall.

Once at the rim of what she assumed to be a mountain, Albel took hold of her forearm and dragged her out of the cavern.

Standing and looking around, Nel noticed that she had no idea at all where they could possibly be. She assumed it would have to be somewhere near Urssa still, but they had walked so far the previous day that she wasn't so sure about that anymore.

"Where do you think we are?" Nel asked, turning to the Glyphian. "Albel?" she called when she discovered that he was not at her side anymore. She looked around and found him walking down the side of what was indeed a mountain.

She caught up to him and scolded him for leaving her behind. The lanky warrior simply shrugged his shoulders and kept walking. Nel followed behind him, annoyed already.

At least we're outside, Nel kept telling herself as she kept pace with the Glyphian's long strides.

A long time passed since they left the cave, and they still had no idea where they were. The sun was high in the sky and would soon start its decent to the horizon; Nel guessed that it was about four in the afternoon.

"We should find something to eat," Nel said as her stomach sang out with disapproval of her neglecting it for so long.

Albel's sienna eyes slid to look at her. He too was hungry, but they would have to hunt if they were to eat anything, and he hadn't seen any form of life since they had originally split up into four groups back in Urssa.

"I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there has been no animals in this area to hunt. So we have to do without," he responded, continuing forward.

Nel's stomach growled again, but she didn't protest because she had been well aware of the lack of wildlife in the area as well. It made her uneasy. The land was blanketed with vegetation, and there were plenty of resources and habitats, so why wasn't there any animals wandering about?

They walked on for a few more hours, hardly ever letting up on the bickering. Once one argument was through, they would somehow find a way to start a new one, or sometimes even start an argument about the fight that they just had.

The sun was close to setting, and they still hadn't come across any indicator to where they were. Nel wondered if they should change directions, maybe they would find something the other way.

"We should find somewhere to stay," Albel said, observing the sky.

"Why?" Nel asked, still peeved about his most recent comment about her clothing along with the way all Aquarians dressed like harlots and had personalities to match.

"Just look at the sky, fool," he said annoyed, "There's going to be a storm tonight."

Nel looked at the clouds in the distance, they didn't seem threatening; they looked like normal drifting clouds in the sunset. She glanced at Albel to see if he was serious or not. He seemed serious, but when didn't he?

"If you say so," she said doubtfully.

"I know what I am talking about. There's going to be a storm, and if you don't believe me then stay outside and get wet and electrocuted for all I care," he shot at her and started moving forward again.

Nel shook her head and resisted the urge to yank his bound braids out of his head, and once again cursed Fayt for pairing her with this monstrosity of a person.

"What's that in the distance?" Nel asked once she saw black spires on the horizon.

It had started to sprinkle, and although she was hesitant to admit it, she had to hand it to Albel for his accurate prediction.

"How the hell should I know?" he responded, peering into the darkening sky at the spires.

Once closer, they discovered that what they had been seeing was a castle, and an old one at that. It was colossal in size, the individual stones that made it stood as high as Nel was tall. The walls where ash in color, like the castle had been burnt and was scorched by fire.

Nel, who had gotten an eerie feeling about the castle already, jumped a little when a loud rumble of thunder broke the silence of the night sky overhead. The rain then began to fall harder and a long, snaking web of lightning slithered its way across the sky.

Nel made her way over to Albel, who was heading in the direction of the castle's entrance. He had managed to break the lock off of the heavy door with his gauntlet by the time she had caught up.

"What are you doing!" she demanded of him when she saw him toss the lock aside.

"Going inside," he said matter-of-factly, cracking open the door to the massive structure.

"Don't you think we should knock first, or something?" she insisted, feeling iffy about entering the castle in the first place, yet alone uninvited.

"No one has been here in years, you can tell by simply looking at it," he said, throwing the door open all the way so that she could see the array of cobwebs that had taken over the interior of the castle.

It was as grey inside as it was outside, but it was dry at least, and provided shelter from the storm. Nel's skin crawled as she entered the castle; she knew that she wasn't going to like this one bit.


	3. Chapter Three

Nel had walked to the center of the room after making sure that nothing was too out of the ordinary and stood next to Albel, who seemed not to mind one bit that he was in the middle of a strange and eerie room.

There was a loud slam behind where they stood. Nel spun around quickly to find that the heavy wooden door had slammed shut behind them. Albel, too, had jerked around and was staring at the door. He made his way over to it and tried the rusted handle.

No good.

"It must be stuck," he said, giving it a harder tug but to no avail.

"What if we break a window?" Nel suggested.

Albel walked over to a window and smashed it with his gauntlet. The glass, shattered into thousands of small unrepairable pieces, made its decent to the ground much too slowly; something was very wrong with it.

Albel took a step backwards when the glass began to rise from the floor and mend itself back into the window frame, not a crack to be found upon it.

"What the," Albel mumbled and smashed the window again, only to have it repair itself once more.

Out of annoyance, he broke it one more time and turned his back to it as it began repairing itself once again. He watched Nel as her eyes widened at something behind him.

"Stop it!" a loud voice boomed behind him, causing him to spin around just in time to see the pale face of an elderly man fading away in the glass.

"Bah," Albel said, moving away from the window, seeming to be unfazed by the sight in the glass.

Nel, however, was still staring at the window in surprise. What had that been? She knew that she didn't really want to find out though. She turned around and made her way to the opposite side of the room, sticking unconsciously close to Albel, and occasionally giving the window a suspicious glace.

"Where are you going?" Nel asked as Albel started to make his way down a long corridor.

"I'm not going to sleep in here on the floor. I'm going to find a bedroom," he said, not caring if she was following him or not.

"Quit leaving me behind!" she scolded him once again, as she had when they left the cavern, for not waiting for her.

"Well, keep up then," he argued back.

Nel glared at him for a while and then turned her focus to the large paintings on the wall at her side; the figures in them where all of people that she assumed to be royalty, or nobles at the very least. She could tell that they used to be glamorous portraits back in their prime, but with years of neglect, dust had settled on them and had eaten away their former splendor.

She felt like the eyes of the portraits were watching her, following her as she walked. She shrugged it off as paranoia, and kept unnaturally close to Albel as he walked further down the corridor.

Albel reached a large staircase at the end of the hallway and swept away a menacing looking spider web that had created a kind of wall that obstructed his path upward.

The new corridor at the top of the stairs was as large as the previous one, only this one seemed to have less cobwebs, and the floor had a strange glint to it, as if it had barley collected any dust over the years.

He opened a door that was near to his right and closed it once again after ruling that it wasn't a bedroom. Nel was groaning behind him and complaining about the spider webs that, according to her, fell from the ceiling to land on her when she walked underneath them. He rolled his eyes in agitation but ignored her as he kept searching for a dormitory of some sort.

They made their way up a few more flights of stairs, having no luck finding a bedroom. They were on the fourth floor of the castle, a hall once again filled with large portraits of resiliently dressed figures. Nel stopped to observe one of the paintings on the wall for a moment as Albel traveled further and further down the hall opening every door that he came across.

"About damn time," she heard him say from down the hall, sounding relieved that he had finally found a room that contained a bed.

Nel peered inside the room once she had made her way over to him; there was only one bed inside. She cocked an eyebrow at Albel and crossed her arms across her chest. "I'm not going to sleep in the same room as you," she said with defiance.

"Glad to hear that, because I wasn't going to let you," he grumbled, walking across the hall and opening a second door to find a similar looking bedroom. "You'll sleep in here."

With that, he walked past her and entered his room, slamming to door behind him; he had had enough of her whining and nagging for one day.

Nel cursed at him and stepped into the room and looked around. It was dirty and a little creepy, but it would have to do.

After she had removed all of the blankets and shook them free of dust and Apris knew what else, she hesitantly sat down on the bed and removed her boots and daggers.

"This is going to be a _long_ night," she said aloud as she tried to make herself comfortable on the ancient bed in the gloomy room.

What was that?

Nel's eyes flew open. It was dark, and she could see the occasional flash of lightning through her filthy window, and the rain made loud splats as it assaulted the glass and side of the castle, only overpowered by the booming thunder. She wondered how she was ever able to fall asleep in the first place.

She could have sworn that she had heard something strange. She glanced around the room but saw nothing.

"Hmm," she said, relaxing again, about ready to go back to sleep, she must have imagined it.

As her eyes were falling shut once more she swore she saw someone standing against the wall next to the door.

She sat up quick as a dart and peered at the wall where she had seen the figure. It had been quick, but she had seen it, she would wager the last of her fol on it.

It had been a woman, only not quite. Her skin had been deep purple in hue and her hair, a deep purple also, had been flowing about her head as if she had been submerged under water; the same went with the tattered purple gown that she had been wearing. Her eyes had been glowing an unnatural orangey yellow while they had glared at Nel.

Nel watched the spot with a relentless vigil for quite sometime. She was more than positive that something had been standing there staring at her. Nothing seemed wrong anymore now that she was fully attentive and, although the hair on the back of her neck where still on end, she laid back down and tried to dismiss the figure as something that her tired and paranoid mind had dreamt up as it had been trying to shut itself down for the night once again.

Nel laid on her back and stared at the ceiling, she was still tired, but she doubted that she would be able to sleep again that night. Who was that woman? Had it been a dream? Many thoughts raced through her head and kept her awake and observant.

That's when it happened.

Nel's attention was suddenly brought back to the area where she had first seen the purple woman when she thought she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. She had looked in time to see the glowing eyes of the gown clad woman blink at her and then quickly move up the wall.

Nel watched in horrified stillness as the purple woman climbed up the smooth wall and began to crawl across the ceiling. A flash of lightning suddenly lit the room, when Nel's eyes refocused she noticed that the woman had turned her body so that she was looking down at the terrified girl in the bed below her.

Nel defensively tucked her body as the purple woman suddenly plummeted downward at her. When she felt nothing she opened one eye and looked at the area above her. There was nothing there.

She heard something to her left and quickly turned her head in the direction that the noise sounded from only to find her face a mere few inches from the banshee-like figure, her glowing eyes glaring at her menacingly within her amethyst face.

Nel let out a surprised yelp causing the purple figure to react suddenly, slashing Nel's face viciously, sending a stream of blood cascading from the torn flesh of her cheek.

Nel jumped out of the bed and ran out of the room. It was not in her nature to run from something, but there was something _too_ unsettling about the purple banshee that made her want to do nothing but flee.

But where was she to go now? What if the woman followed her out here to the hallway? She had left her weapons in the room, she hadn't thought of grabbing them in her haste to get away from the terrible banshee.

Nel did the only thing she could think of.

"Albel!" She cried as she suddenly burst into his room.

She observed him as he leapt out of the bed and unsheathe his katana in a surprising few seconds. He was shirtless and his bear chest was heaving; she must have given him quite a start with her sudden entrance.

He was glaring at her, obviously none too happy that she had barged in on him in the middle of the night screaming at the top of her voice.

She was talking fast, explaining what had happened. He noticed the gashes on her face; they were bleeding pretty profusely and needed to be tended to before the filth of the castle gave her any form of infection. She was also lacking footwear and her weapons.

"Slow down woman," he said, rubbing his head from the headache he was quickly getting. "There was a _what_ in your room?"

"A purple woman with glowing orange eyes… kind of like a banshee or something," she said again, not missing the skeptical look that crossed his face. "I'm not making this up!" she shouted at him.

"Alright, don't go into hysterics or anything," he said raising his hands in defense. The cuts on her face got there somehow, he knew that for fact, whether it was a _purple banshee_ or not was still questionable in his mind however. "What do you want me to do about it?" he asked with a frown on his face.

Nel looked down at the ground, she couldn't believe that she was even thinking about asking what she was about to say next. She shook her head and swallowed her pride, "Can I sleep in here with you for the night?" she asked, her eyes pleading with him. The event in her room had obviously troubled her beyond her own comprehension, and she was probably going to regret asking her question in the long run.

Albel was a little taken aback by her request. He had figured that she would want him to come with her to investigate her room; he had definitely not expected _this_.

He shook his head and frowned, he wanted to call her out on her cowardice, bombard her with comments on her weakness and fear. He looked at her and began to open his mouth to begin but closed it when he saw just how shaken the woman in front of him actually was.

She looked like a small child, shivering and appearing about ready to cry. He knew her well enough to know that this wasn't like her at all; what the hell had occurred in her room? Obviously something terrible enough to send her flying into his room seeking aid… maybe even his protection. He knew that she had swallowed a great deal of her "Aquarian Pride" to come here… and he knew he would feel like a complete jackass if he sent her away at a time like this.

He heaved a great sigh and gave in to Nel's pleading eyes, "Fine," he grumbled and turned away, unable to look at her anymore.

He walked over to the bed and grabbed the sheath to his katana. A sudden chill went down his spine when his katana was half sheathed; something wasn't right.

A loud rumble of thunder shook the room and was followed by a bright flash of lightning.

Albel turned to look at Nel, she was watching him with her emerald eyes; nothing seemed to be _too_ wrong with her. But there was still something troubling his mind, something seemed to be out of place in the room and it annoyed him that he couldn't place quite what it was, causing him to finish sheathing the rest of his katana with excessive force.

Something was very wrong. He looked at Nel again and received the same chill that he had experienced a few moments before. Something gave him a feeling that she was in grave danger while here in this castle.


	4. Chapter Four

It had been an awkward night for both of them.

Albel had given up his bed, not by choice but rather obligation, to Nel after she had laid herself down upon it for the night. He had grumbled about it for a little while but sat himself down in a rather filthy looking chair near the window never the less.

The storm outside seemed to be growing increasingly worse. Albel watched the lightning entwine itself with the clouds from his chair while he listened to Nel's soft breathing coming from the opposite side of the room.

Something was still peculiar about the room, as if a strange air was circulating around him. Although his body wanted to force him into slumber, he couldn't sleep anymore that night and devoted his time to keeping a vigil for anything out of the ordinary.

Earlier he had pointed out to Nel that she was bleeding all over his floor and she had healed herself with her runology. He remembered the distinct look of shock on her face when she had gingerly touched her cheek and felt _just_ how bad that the gash on her face actually was. She hadn't said too much after that, and her usual haughty attitude was nowhere to be found; Albel had been surprised that a fight had not once developed over the most trivial of things.

She had gone to bed shortly later, mumbling something about leaving first thing in the morning, storm or not.

Albel's head jerked up suddenly, he hadn't meant to nod off, but had managed to somehow.

A loud crash had sounded from somewhere in the hallway outside of his door startling him awake once more that night. He looked at the bed and saw Nel sitting up straight, staring at the door also.

What had that sound been?

Albel stood up and retrieved his shirt from where he had left it on the floor earlier when he had gone to bed the first time. He then unsheathed his katana and headed toward the door.

"Wait for me," Nel said, suddenly at his side. She sounded more like her self now; stronger and more confident. Albel wasn't so sure if this was a good thing or not; she had been less irking when she had been nerved.

Albel opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He saw nothing that could have been the potential source of the crash as he peered around the darkened corridor.

He turned his attention to Nel as she opened the door to her room and disappeared inside.

"Come here," she called urgently from inside and then pointed out that the bed that she had once been sleeping in a few hours ago was now shattered and splintered into countless different pieces. It looked as if a bomb had been set in the center of it, sending the debris sailing to all corners of the room.

"Hmm…" Albel said as he kicked aside a chunk of bed nearest to his boot.

Nel had managed to find her boots and daggers among the debris of bed after a small amount of searching and felt more comfortable as soon she had placed them on her body once again.

She turned to examine the mess on the floor and ducked under a bed post, presently impaled in the wall, to get to the other side of the room. She had wanted to leave to room but something made her feel the need to stay a little bit longer.

"What the hell could have happened?" she heard Albel mutter aloud as he stood in the supposed epicenter of the explosion.

Nel turned to look at him and was momentarily blinded by a white flash of lightning. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness once more her heart momentarily stopped as she swore she saw the purple banshee standing against the wall a mere few inches away from Albel, who was still examining the area around himself, apparently unaware of the figure behind him.

Nel let a small gasp escape her throat and drew her daggers. "Get away from there!" she shouted to Albel, who was looking at her as if she was crazy.

Albel turned to look at the wall behind him, hoping that it would give him some explanation as to what the Aquarian was talking about. He saw nothing but a wall.

"The purple woman was standing _right_ behind you, I swear it!" Nel explained frantically to him after he hadn't budged an inch.

Albel shook his head; he was trying to find logic in the whole situation, "You're seeing things, fool."

"I am not _seeing_ things," she hissed at him, "she was really there!"

"How come I got stuck with the loony?" Albel muttered under his breath as he amused her by moving from his position in the room, only to be reprimanded by a sharp tug on one of his bound braids. "Ow!" he howled, rubbing the back of his head and glaring at his 'companion', "What did you do that for!"

"I'm a trained spy, Albel Nox. I'm not deaf," she said, her arms crossing and a stony glare manifesting itself in her eyes. "I know what I saw. If you chose not to believe me, then fine; see if I care."

She turned her back to him and looked at the room. The amethyst woman was probably still in here with them… but where?

There was a sudden draft throughout the room causing the window fly open and collide against the wall, sending shards of glass spraying across the room.

Nel lowered her arm that she had raised to shield her eyes from the onslaught of glass and eyed the window suspiciously as the rain began to drench the floor.

The silence in the room was soon shattered by a loud and demanding rumble of thunder. Nel could have sworn that she had heard something else amongst the booming however. She knew she had heard a scream.

Nel let out a soft cry after she had quickly made her way to the window and had peered downward at the ground. There were countless amounts of bodies falling from the sky!

Albel, who had also moved to the window, made a strange sound deep within his throat when he viewed the sight in front of him. The bodies, somewhat transparent, seemed to simply fade into existence from absolutely nowhere at all. They quickly plummeted to the ground, screaming and wailing as they went, as if in horror. As the pale bodies landed on the ground far below, they faded away as easily as they had appeared out of thin air.

"What the hell is this!" Albel said as he moved his head back to avoid being struck by a hysteric individual. There was no more denying that there was something extremely wrong with this castle; no logic could explain this.

"Let's leave," Nel suggested quietly, once again pleading with her emerald eyes.

Although she seemed to have returned to her normal state again, she was still very apprehensive about the castle that they were lodging in, and wanted to leave immediately.

Albel looked back at the falling transparent people outside in the storm; the thought of leaving didn't sound like too bad of an idea at the moment. They were both wide awake and dawn wasn't _too_ far away. Further more, staying here may continue to subject them to things that they couldn't quite explain... and possible unforeseen dangers.

"Alright," he said, giving a final frown to the bodies that kept dropping past the window.

"The door is still stuck," Nel said as she pulled harder on the handle.

"Get out of my way, worm," Albel growled at her. He pushed past the scowling woman and gave the handle a hard yank. Nothing. He pulled harder; _too_ hard. He stared down and the rusted handle that was now in his hand and cursed loudly.

"Now look what you've done," Nel said in a merciless voice.

"Oh, shut up. It was bound to happen; just look at the damn thing," he said, forcing the handle into the woman's hand and sulked away to the center of the room. Nel Zelpher was truly her old, and annoying, self again.

There was a bright flash behind him, followed by a curse from the Aquarian.

He turned to see smoke drifting lazily about the wood of the archaic door. "What did you just do?" he demanded.

"I thought we could burn it down," she said, pondering why her fire spell hadn't set the door ablaze.

"That's a little drastic, don't you think?" he sneered.

"Well, if you hadn't have broken the handle off," she said, letting her voice trail off at the end.

Albel snorted at her, "Oh please!" he shouted, "You know that that wasn't my fault."

"You shouldn't have pulled so hard if you knew that they handle was that fragile!" she yelled back at him, all uneasiness that she had had about the castle replaced with anger for the Glyphian swordsman.

Albel turned away from her and paced a few steps away and sighed, "There _has_ to be more than one exit out of a _castle_," he said, his back still to her.

There was silence as a response. He craned his neck and looked over his shoulder at the spot where Nel had been standing. He didn't see her.

He turned his body and explored the room with his eyes, an ominous feeling making its presence known in the pit of his stomach.

Nel was gone.


	5. Chapter Five

Where am I?

Nel's eyes slowly slid open as she forced her body into a sitting position from where she had apparently been unconscious on the ground for Apris knew how long.

"What the hell?" she said aloud upon inspecting her surroundings.

She was in a strange room… if it could even be called a room, that is. The walls, floor, and ceiling were composed of pure white light. There was nothing in the room that permitted Nel's mind to determine whether she was indeed inside a room, or possibly an endless void of some sort. Neither option made her particularly fluttery on the inside.

She stood up and started to dust her backside, and stopped suddenly, looking down at herself in horror.

These aren't my clothes, she thought as she looked down at herself, seeing a white gown. It was very elegant looking, something that royalty would wear, or someone going to a ball. The dress's straps hung snuggly about her upper arms, parallel to the top of the gown, which, in Nel's opinion, revealed more than a little too much cleavage. The skirt of the gown poofed out at the hips and fell gracefully to the top of her equally new, and equally white, heeled evening shoes.

The hair on the back of Nel's neck stood suddenly, causing her look up from her examination of the white gown.

She let out a small yelp of surprise when she saw who was now in the white room with her. It was _herself_!

Nel's eyes where wide in amazement, what was going on!

The second Nel was dressed in the same white dress that Nel had found herself dressed in. The other "Nel" also had hair that went down to the small of her back, but it matched Nel's magenta hue exactly. But there was something about the other Nel set her apart from the original more than anything physical. It was the air of significance and importance that hung about her; there was something _more_ than strange about this other woman.

"Who are you?" Nel asked guardedly.

The other Nel flashed a sorrowful smile at her and closed her eyes, something obviously troubling her.

"I am Nellexis, the eldest princess of this castle," said the mirror image of Nel. "Or… I used to be anyway… until the accident," she added mournfully.

"I think I am missing something here," Nel said perplexedly, eyeing the woman in front of her suspiciously.

"Let me show you," Nellexis said unexpectedly in a serene voice that sounded identical to Nel's own.

Nel spun around as the whiteness of the room suddenly faded into the gray walls of the castle that she had once been in.

The castle walls were now lacking the spider webs and the years of collected dust, making them give off a warm and homey feeling, much unlike the eeriness that they gave off when she had last seen them.

"Come with me," Nellexis kindly instructed, walking in the direction of a wooden door. Nel gasped when she realized that the room was the same one that she had spent the night in; the same room that she had been attacked by the womanly phantom.

Nel hesitantly followed Nellexis into the room and looked at her quizzically when she saw a blonde haired woman sitting at a desk next to the bed that had exploded only not too long ago.

"She cannot see us," Nellexis informed Nel upon noticing the peculiar look on the woman's face.

"Why does Nellexis get _everything_!" said the blonde woman, making Nel turn her attention back to her. "She is our parent's favorite just because she is the eldest, she has the best living quarters, the best servants, all the gentlemen in the area adore _her_; she receives the best of everything!"

The blonde girl paused and picked up an object from her desk, "Nellexis is having her Choosing Ceremony tonight in which she will choose her husband… coincidentally enough its on my birthday. They _forgot_ about it! But I'll show her… and _everybody_ for that matter, that I will not be pushed aside and be forgotten. It should be _my_ day, not Nellexis'!"

The woman made her way to the door, concealing the object that she had taken from her desk within her gown, "Once Nellexis is out of the way, _I_ shall become our parent's favorite, and then no one will forget about me."

The door closed behind her, leaving Nel alone in the room with Nellexis. She looked at the woman as silence fell over the room, the princess was looking into Nel's eyes, slightly unnerving the Aquarian.

"Marina, my younger sister, resented me because I was the eldest and received the majority of the attention from our parents and our subjects," Nellexis explained, "She never knew that I hated the attention, and truly felt sorry for her. I tried explaining to my parents how she felt throughout the years… but they never understood."

"What was it that she hid in her dress?" Nel asked, giving into the strangeness of seeing what she assumed to be the past.

"Come with me and you will see for yourself," Nellexis said in a mournful voice.

The walls began to morph again and finally stopped in what looked to be a very busy kitchen. Chefs where rushing about and yelling frenzied orders to one another in attempts to finish whatever it was that they were cooking. Nel turned when she heard the kitchen's doors swing open.

Nel's emerald eyes followed the blonde princess across the room to who appeared to be the head chef. Nellexis lead Nel to where Marina and the chef where quietly talking amongst each other.

"Yes ma'am," Nel heard the chef saying as they approached them.

"I don't want this to leak out. You hear me?" Marina said in a lethal whisper. "Just the chefs."

"Yes ma'am," the chef said, taking the offered item that the princess had pulled from her gown.

Poison!

Nel turned to Nellexis in alarm to find her still watching the scene with the same calm expression on her face. Not knowing what to do or say, Nel turned back to the scene, her mouth agape. She watched as Marina walked out of the kitchen with a rather diabolical smirk on her face, and then turned to the chef as he ordered his apprentices to quite down and gather around him.

"I want you to make sure that this gets in the eldest princess's food and drink," said the head chef when he had everyone's attention, "Princess Marina wishes it so."

The apprentice chefs looked at each other in alarm, but nodded and kept quite.

Nel felt sick as she watched the chefs divvy the poison up and put it into the food that they had been previously making.

Time seemed to fast forward all of a sudden, the chefs moved at very rapid paces, and were soon carrying the poisoned food out on platters and on carts with wheels.

The Choosing Ceremony must be about to begin.

Time returned back to normal once the last of the chefs left the kitchen; the door still swinging on its hinges.

"The poison wasn't supposed to be put in _all_ of the food," Nellexis' voice broke into Nel's troubled mind, "Just mine; the chefs had erred."

Nel's mouth moved as if she was about to say something, but what was there to say?

"Don't worry about saying anything," the princess said, obviously reading the look on Nel's face. "Come with me."

Nel nodded and their surroundings shifted once more. Nel was now in a hallway outside a great room. Nel could hear people talking within the room about something that sounded like high importance.

A figure appeared at Nel's side, causing her to jump in surprise. It was Marina; she had walked out of a door a few feet down the hall, and was now pressing her ear to the great door, eavesdropping on those within.

"You don't understand," cried a voice that Nel identified as Nellexis, "its Marina's _birthday_! I can't have the Choosing Ceremony tonight! You never think about how _she_ feels, or what _she_ thinks, or what _she _wants!"

"It's Marina's birthday?" a masculine voice said quizzically.

"_Yes_!" Nellexis shouted back, exasperated.

Nel looked at Marina to fins that she had a look of amazement on her face.

"Nellexis actually cares about me?" she muttered aloud as she pressed her ear harder against the door to hear what was being said.

"You always forget that you have a second daughter that needs the same amount of attention that you give me. In fact, I don't need all of the attention that you give me; it's just _too_ much." Nellexis continued from within the large room. "The ceremony has to be postponed to a later date."

"I have to stop the chefs," Marina said suddenly, turning on her heels and running in the direction of the kitchen.

"What about the guests?" asked a feminine voice.

Nel turned her attention back to the door.

"Have them be guests at a surprise party for Marina," Nellexis suggested, sounding less annoyed at the two people in the room with her.

"That's a great idea Nellexis!" cried the feminine voice once more.

The doors suddenly swung open and Nel watched as a different Nellexis led a regally dressed couple down the long corridor.

Nel turned to Nellexis, "What happened next?"

"Chaos," was Nellexis' simple answer.

The corridor morphed once more and they arrived in a room full of people dancing and laughing. Chefs where pouring into the room carrying platter upon platter of food. The dancing people stopped in mid step and began cheering in approval as the chefs placed the food down on the large banquet table.

The crowd began to find their seats at the grand table and began to help themselves to the food in front of them.

Nel's eyes widened as she resisted the urge to slap the food out of the nearest person's hands.

The second Nellexis was sitting at the table looking rather gloomy.

"We couldn't find Marina to tell her that we were celebrating her birthday rather than my Choosing Ceremony," Nellexis told Nel calmly. "My parents worried about the guest's restlessness and decided to begin the party with or without her."

Nel shifted her gaze from the princess to the group of people devouring the poisoned food. She quickly turned back to Nellexis when she heard her emit a strange sound and saw her watching the table. Following her gaze, Nel saw the other Nellexis slowly pick up a goblet and take a deep, long drink of its contents.

"Stop!" came an urgent cry from the opposite side of the room.

Everyone in the room turned to watch the younger princess running into the room waving her arms about in a hysterical fury.

"The food is poisoned! Don't eat anything!" she screamed at the people at the table, seeing them dropping the food that they had been eating, some of them spitting it back onto their plates.

"What are you talking about Marina?" the King, her father, asked in alarm while standing up.

"I-I had the chefs poison the food," Marina quietly confessed.

"You did _what_!" cried the Queen, standing up as well.

"You always forgot about me and favored Nellexis over anything else… I-I wanted to get rid of her so that I would finally be noticed," the blonde princess said through tears. "The poison was only supposed to be for Nellexis, but the head chef just recently revealed to me that they had put it in everything without thinking."

The guests at the table screamed as a man fell out of his chair and onto the floor, showing no sign of life any longer.

Nel watched in horror as some of the other guests began to drop dead as well. Some people began to run to the edge of the room, as if leaving the castle would save them from their inevitable doom. As one of the female guests reached the wall that lead to a balcony she collapsed, causing her body to crash through the window.

A man that had been following close behind the woman leaned over the edge as if to make an attempt to catch her plummeting body. He began to swagger and was grabbed by another man in attempt to straighten him. The first man was swaggering far too much and fell forward through the window as well, pulling the second man with him.

Meanwhile, people at the table where beginning to fall face first into the food that had served as their death, while the King held the unconscious Queen in his arms.

Marina had made her way to Nellexis, who was standing near her chair, watching in alarm as the people in the room continued to fall to the ground, motionless.

"Nelly!" Marina cried, grabbing hold of Nellexis' shoulders and forcing her to look at her. "I'm so sorry Nellexis! Please, can you ever forgive me?"

The other Nellexis stared into her sister's tear-filled eyes and began to open her mouth when all of a sudden she fell limp against Marina, forcing her down onto the ground.

"Nellexis!" Marian cried, shaking her sister, "Nelly, please don't die!" she sobbed in vain, knowing that her sister was already dead.

Nel watched as Marina stood up and looked around herself at the scene of death that she had caused and let out a loud scream.

She then turned to the large banquet table and took up a goblet of poisoned liquid. She downed the whole glass and kneeled down and pulled her older sister into her arms and held her tightly, her sobs turning into a hysteric fit.

Before Nel knew what had happened she was back in the room of pure whiteness. She reached up to rub her eyes of the sight and discovered that her face was wet. She had been crying.

"I had been about to tell her that I forgave her," Nellexis' voice said at her side.

Nel slowly turned to face her, wiping her face of any evidence that she had shed tears, "Where is she now? What happened next?"

"You've already meet her a few times," the princess said.

The white room turned dark and Nel was all alone. She turned around and found herself face to face with the purple banshee that had terrorized her earlier in the night.

Nel let out a cry and closed her eyes tightly as the purple woman lunged at her, emitting a ear-shattering shriek. When she opened them again she was once again in the white room again with Nellexis.

"Marina is the banshee!" Nel demanded.

"Yes," Nel's likeness said sadly. "When the poison finally took her life, she wasn't able to move on to the next life; her anger and sorrow kept her bound to this world, where she has only one task to complete," she said, her voice drifting off.

"To kill you," Nel said, finishing the sentence.

"Yes," Nellexis nodded. "Because we look so much alike, there is no doubt that Marina thinks that you are her sister… me."

Nel was silent for a while, "What should I do then?"

"I suggest that you leave as soon as you can," Nellexis said, sighing heavily. "As long as you are here, your life is in danger; the quicker you can get out, the better."

"We tried to get out once, my companion and I, but there were some… _compilations_." Nel explained about the shatterproof window and the incident with the door handle.

"Maybe Marina is trying to trap you inside?" Nellexis said, thinking aloud.

"What then?" Nel asked.

Nellexis looked around herself and seemed very troubled all of a sudden.

"What is it?" Nel inquired, a little worried.

"She has found us. You're not safe here any longer!" Nellexis said urgently to the Aquarian.

"Marina?" Nel asked, trying to make head or tails of what was happening.

"Yes," the princess said, "I have to send you back. Take this with you." She said, pushing an amulet into Nel's hand.

"What is it?" Nel questioned while looking down at the pendant.

"It will provide you some protection from Marina," Nellexis said and she closed her eyes and began to mumble something strange sounding.

Nel began to feel peculiar, like her body was becoming aware of surroundings that weren't visible.

"It's the love of a sister," Nellexis said, her voice sounding far away even though she was still in front of Nel. "It may bring the Marina I once knew back to the surface of the monster that she has become. Goodbye, Nel."

"Wait!" Nel shouted as the whiteness faded away and cobwebby grayness engulfed her once again. She let out a yelp as she realized that she was high above the dusty, tiled floor. She fell downward and landed on something surprisingly soft. She looked down at what she had landed on, and, for once in her life, was relieved to see who she saw laying beneath her.

Albel!


	6. Chapter Six

Sorry updating took so long, spring break -;;

* * *

"Quite the entrance," Albel grumbled as he lay pinned to the floor.

"It's so good to see you!" Nel said, surprising herself with the words almost as much as the warrior beneath her.

"Do you mind?" Albel asked after a moment of awkward silence, a betraying hint of color gracing his cheeks as he tried to move his body.

"Sorry," she apologized feeling her face grow warm, and then absentmindedly dusted her clothing free of any dirt that may have attached itself to her.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Albel asked, cocking an eyebrow at her all white ball gown.

Nel looked down at herself and was surprised to find that she was still wearing the gown that she had woken up in when she had had her fateful encounter with Nellexis.

"What happened to you?" Albel asked after there was no response to his first inquiry.

Nel took a deep breath and recounted her entire experience from beginning to end. When she had concluded her experience she finally took note of the frown upon the warrior's face as he watched her from the spot he had taken up leaning against the wall.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Nel accused, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at him. She knew her tale had been more than a little farfetched, but even Albel the Wicked would have to admit by now that anything could happen here in this castle.

Albel shook his head, uncrossed his arms, and pushed himself off of the wall so that he was standing straight, "It's not that I don't believe you… it's just that when you were gone, I checked a good deal of the doors," he stopped briefly, thinking over how he was going to state what had to be said.

"_And_?" Nel asked anxiously.

"And," Albel glowered, irked by her impatience, "all the doors are gone."

"What do you mean _gone_!" Nel demanded, her voice a little louder than she had intended it to be.

"I mean exactly what I said; all the doors are gone. They vanished when I tried to open them," he said with mild annoyance at the fact that he had to explain himself, along with the fact that he couldn't quite comprehend what was going on within the castle himself.

"How do we get out of here then?" Nel inquired, although knowing that he wouldn't have an answer for her.

"How the hell should I know? At least the hell-spawn in this place aren't after me," he said with a shrug and turned his back to his female companion, only to feel a sharp pain at the nape of his neck. "Ow!"

"You can at least be a little more considerate; you're a part of this as much as I am," Nel scolded, still holding the man's bound braid in her hand, threatening to yank it again.

"I am not," he argued, snatching his hair away from her. "I haven't seen a single ghost since we have been in this castle. Its you that has been attacked by a _purple phantom_, abducted by a dead princess, and has been harassed by everything short and tall in this god forsaken castle! Not me."

"You saw a ghost also," Nel yelled back at him. "Remember the face in the window from when we tried to get out of here the first time when the door slammed shut?"

"That was nothing," Albel said after a pause. "It was just lightning reflecting off of the glass; nothing but eye trickery."

"Albel Nox!" Nel yelled. "You know you saw that face, so don't try to deny it. Besides, maybe it can tell us how to get out of here."

"You want to _talk_ to the ghosts now?" Albel scowled, only to find that the Aquarian woman was already making her way down the corridor back to the lobby, white dress flowing behind her. "She's crazy," he muttered to himself, feeling obliged to follow her... protect her?

"Will you hurry up?" Nel chided from a good distance down the hallway.

Albel shook the thought out of his head, there was no way that he was going to voluntarily play bodyguard for someone who nagged his ear off every chance that she got. He frowned and began to take longer strides.

Nel was looking at the window that they had tried to break earlier when he entered the lobby.

"Break it," Nel ordered Albel when he had sauntered over to her.

"Are you broken or something? Why don't _you _break it?" he snorted back, crossing his arms and glaring at her.

"This is no time to be a stubborn child. You have that gauntlet to keep you from getting hurt; I don't." Nel scolded him as if he were indeed and small boy. "Besides, you like to destroy things, so quit complaining and just _do_ it."

Albel continued to glare at her and for a moment and then reluctantly struck the glass. The glass began to repair itself as it had done when they had previously shattered it, the many shards glinting and reflecting the lighting and rain drops from outside.

Nothing happened.

"Break it again," Nel urged after receiving a skeptical look from the man at her side.

Albel shattered the glass once again and grabbed hold of a large piece of glass that was making its way back to the window frame, feeling the magical tug on the glass as it tried to free itself from its imprisonment within the metal of his clawed hand.

"Look!" Nel said urgently, gesturing to the window.

The pale face of the man that they had caught a glimpse of earlier was starting to manifest itself upon the glass of the window; he didn't appear to be very pleased.

"Give it back you ruffian!" it yelled at Albel, referring to the hostage piece of glass.

Albel cocked an eyebrow and slid his gaze to Nel, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"We're very sorry to trouble you, but can you tell us how to get out of here?" Nel asked, being as polite as she could.

"Use the door, dummy," it said irritated. "Now give me my glass back!"

"The door won't open, and all of the other exits have vanished," Nel explained, losing some of her courteousness at the ghost's rudeness. "That's why we are asking you if you know how to get out of here."

"How should I know? I live in a _window_!" the ghost said bitterly, still glaring at Albel.

"Are you sure you don't know any other way out of here?" Nel prodded, positive that he knew something.

"I told you, woman, I don't know. Now tell your little boyfriend to give me my blasted glass back!" the face demanded angrily.

Nel faltered at the title the ghostly face had given Albel and took a few seconds to speak again. "Albel is _not _my _boyfriend_," she corrected the man in the glass, her temper flaring.

A sly smirk crossed the ghost's face, "I do so believe that I Struck a – ack!" he began to say before he was cut off by Albel's clawed hand through the glass.

"Tell us how to get out of here!" He growled when the glass had repaired itself, the hole where the glass that he was still holding gaping wide and obscene.

"Quit doing that!" cried the face, flustered.

"Then quit wasting our time," Albel yelled back, a small fire burning in his sienna eyes.

"I don't know any other way out of here besides the door right there at your side!" the face said stubbornly.

Albel shattered the glass once more and glared at the face when it had reassembled the window.

"Stop it!" the man cried in annoyance.

"Is there anyway that you could let us leave through you're window?" Nel asked, grabbing hold of Albel's wrist as he was about the attack the glass once again. The last thing she needed was the ghost to get even more flustered so that their time would be wasted even more than it already was.

"Are you _insane_!" the ghost wailed.

Nel blinked and stared at the face for a moment, "Why can't we just go through? It would only take a few seconds," she tried to convince him.

"Because!" was the ghost's snootish response.

"_Because_?" Nel asked, losing her patience with the ghostly being.

"It's like me asking if I could play in your intestines. Now give me my glass back and leave me alone," the ghost said impatiently.

Nel glared at the face and released Albel's wrist. Albel, immediately aware of his freedom, smashed the window in the time frame that a blink would occupy.

"If I tell you a way out will you leave me _alone_!" the ghost asked exasperatedly, giving in to the two mortals that were bullying him.

"Yes!" Nel and Albel cried in unison, both at the end of their ropes.

"Fine then, but if anybody asks, you never heard this from me," it said, looking side to side.

"There is no one else in this castle _to _tell!" Nel sighed, shaking her head.

"Go to the throne room and sit in the King's throne. There is a small switch underneath the left armrest that, if pressed, will take you to a secret pathway. The pathway will lead you directly outside the castle," the ghost whispered as if there where many people around them that he didn't want overhearing them.

"Thank you," Nel said, knowing that the ghost had knew something all along "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

"Hmph," was all the ghost mustered.

Albel let the imprisoned glass out of his hand and watched it mend itself back into place, making the glass whole again.

"One more thing," called the ghost after his two harassers, "The button only works once. It is a safety mechanism so that once the king escaped the enemy couldn't follow. The button would have to be reset by a specialist to be usable once again; so you better make your one chance count."

Nel looked at Albel after the ghost faded away; she hadn't liked the sound of that one bit.

"Thank Apris," Nel muttered as they entered the dark and gloomy throne room after one of the most agonizing walks ever. Albel had never once let up on teasing her about her new outfit and how peculiar she looked in it. Nel, however, hadn't stood by and let him say these things without defending herself. Their small argument had soon turned into an all out verbal war. The throne room had served as an intervention between them before they decided to go from verbal war to just plain war.

"Let's hurry," Nel said after taking a few steps within, feeling her skin crawl as a draft of dank air circled about her, lightly moving the skirt of her gown.

"Are you afraid?" Albel asked, a crooked smirk gracing his face as he found something new to harass her with.

"No," Nel said defensively. "It's just that this place makes me uneasy."

"Then you _are_ scared," Albel said triumphantly, stopping and turning to face her.

"Being uneasy doesn't make me _afraid_, now shut up and keep moving," she said, balling up a wad of gown at her side in an effort not to clobber the Glyphian unconscious with her bare fists, "The ghost in the _window_ is more bearable than you ever will be."

Albel smirked and began to resume his way to the two dusty thrones that sat at the far end of the large room.

"The larger one must be the King's," Albel said to himself as he inspected the two seats. He felt underneath the arm of the chair and felt a small button beneath his fingertips and then turned his attention to Nel, "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out how this thing will open," said the Aquarian, who was inspecting the wall around the back of the throne. "It looks like it will just spin around with no marginal space."

"So we have to sit then?" he asked, looking at the dirty throne with disdain.

"I believe so," Nel said.

Albel sat down on the throne, a diabolical grin crossing his face, as he watched a look of horror cross Nel's.

"No," she said quickly and louder than she had anticipated.

"You wanted to get out of here so bad, and we can only use the button once; there is no other option," Albel said, patting his lap, his smirk growing more sinister as he watched the color rush to Nel's cheeks.

The last thing that Nel wanted to do was be close to Albel Nox, yet alone being on top of him once more. Nel heaved a sigh, he was right, there was no other choice. She spun around and carefully lowered herself onto Albel's lap, disturbed to discover that it was surprisingly comfortable.

"Ready?" she heard him ask, feeling his body vibrate against her back.

Not waiting for a response he pressed the button under the armrest and the throne began to loudly rotate.

Nel jumped a little when she felt Albel's hands touch the sides of her thighs as he brought his arms in so that they wouldn't be taken off by the edge of the wall. She was then forced to lean further back into him as the top of the opening threatened to clip her head off.

"Why is this thing going to damn slow?" she groaned as the throne creaked around at a turtle pace, "If it went this slow back in its prime the King would have been dead by now."

She felt Albel sigh when the throne finally completed its rotation and then felt his hands move up the side of her body in the pitch blackness of the pathway. She could hear her heart start to speed up and her cheeks grow warm as his palms firmly, but gently, touched the bare skin of her back.

There was a sudden push.

"Hey!" Nel cried as she was snapped out of her trance-like state, barely retaining her balance after being roughly shoved off of Albel's lap.

"Let's find a way out of here," he said, ignoring her. He had seen an object that looked like a torch when the throne had spun around and was currently searching the wall for it.

"Light this," he ordered after finally locating it.

"What?" Nel asked, still orienting herself to the darkness, not sure about what he was talking about.

"It's a torch; light it," he said again, shoving the torch into her hand.

Nel lit the torch with a fire spell and then turned to Albel and stifled a small laugh. She must have put a little extra "umphf" into the fire spell than she had intended.

Albel, however, was far from laughing as he wiped his face of the blackness that the Aquarian's spell had covered him in.

Nel let the laugh escape her lips and regretted it almost immediately when Albel growled at her.

"Run," he snarled.

Nel let another laugh out and then a small yelp when Albel actually began to move towards her.

This probably won't turn out very good, Nel thought as she darted down the pathway, only the small bit of flame lighting the immediate area around her and a fuming Albel the Wicked at her heels.

* * *

The ending was kinda blah in my opinion, but i got distracted by Time magazine and Viva La Bam. I may go back and revamp it a tad.

Thank you for reviewing everybody, my selfesteem has been kinda low lately, so you have really helped me out a lot!


	7. Chapter Seven

Sorry for the confusion last time, the last chapter was not the end of the story, but just that, a chapter.

* * *

"How long is this passageway!" Nel said aloud as she felt her legs slowing down and beginning to grow shaky. Her ankles and feet hurt from running in the foreign white heels that she had gotten when she had talked to Nellexis, making her realize that she had been running from Albel for quite some time, and was surprised that there had been no end to the secret pathway that they had entered via the throne. She began to notice an ominous feeling growing in the pit of her stomach, and slowed her pace a little more.

From the orange glow of the fire that lit the torch in her hand, she made out a deeper shade of darkness than the shadows that she had grown used to seeing in front of her of the floors and walls.

Nel dug her heels into the earth beneath her and screeched to a halt just before the strange darkness. She could now see that the deep shadow was actually a large opening in the middle of the pathway. She swaggered a bit, trying to keep her balance from the sudden stop, and then turned around to face her pursuer.

She could see his eyes change from untamed fury to surprise at her unexpected halt, and then watched as he tried to dig his feet into the ground to stop himself before going over the edge of the opening that he was just now aware of.

"No!" Nel cried when Albel was unable to cease due to the momentum that he had built up while chasing the Aquarian down the pathway.

She sped to the side of the opening and was relieved to see Albel hanging onto the side of the gap with one hand, the other still clutching his katana.

"Are you going to stand there and watch me fall to my death, or are you going to help me, maggot?" he sneered, shifting his gaze to the abyss below him and uttering a low pitch grunt.

"Maybe if you ask nicely," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him, recalling her long and agonizing flee from the dangling man.

"Oh, stop it," he responded, now returning her glare with matching intensity.

"Why should I help you? You tried to kill me!" she yelled at him, seeing a small flame of anger ignite in his eyes.

"Oh please, you know I wouldn't have actually hurt you… too badly," he said, feeling his grip on the ledge slipping.

Nel let out a 'hmpf' and turned her back, "Apologize."

"What?" he growled, knowing that there was probably no time for such foolish games as this.

"I want you to apologize to me," Nel said simply, turning around, placing her hands on her hips and staring into his eyes.

"Don't be an idiot! Just help me up," he argued, refusing to give in to her demand.

"Not until you apologize for trying to _kill _me!" she said, walking away from the hole, and out of Albel's vision.

Albel could feel small rocks and pebbles shifting underneath his hand, and then felt his fingers start to slide backward.

Nel rushed back and peered down the opening at her companion when she heard him emit a strange sound, "What? What is it?" She couldn't help herself but to be concerned.

She could see his fingers barley hanging onto the ledge, and knew that he would probably die before he ever swallowed his pride and apologize.

"Here," she said, setting down the torch with a sigh, kneeling, and grabbing hold of his wrist, "Let go of the sword."

"Are you _crazy_!" he shouted, staring into her sparkling green eyes as if she was indeed a loon, and his echo dancing loudly off of the chasm walls.

"Albel, just drop it; you need both hands to get out of here," she argued, feeling his hand slip a little.

Albel was silent for a moment and then reluctantly dropped his katana into the hole and then grabbed hold of a different hand grip, "Are you happy now, all we have as defense is _you_ now. Now get me out of here."

Nel gave a hard tug on his arm but he didn't budge, "You have to help me do this you know," she said frustrated, readying herself to pull again.

Albel dug his feet into the wall and pushed up when Nel began to try to haul him up once more. This time however he found himself halfway out of the opening and could grip the ground to keep himself in place.

Nel released his wrist and help pull him the rest of the way out of the opening, and then watched him as he lay on his back, heaving for air.

"Are you okay?" Nel asked, feeling a slight twang of uneasiness.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, getting to his feet and looking back into the chasm that he had just escaped, probably mourning the loss of his weapon, which was like a third arm to him.

"Now what?" Nel asked.

"We have no other choice but to jump across. We can't go back, the throne won't rotate around again," Albel said, assessing the width of the opening.

"Jump?" Nel muttered, noting that she would probably be able to make the leap with her own boots, but the white heels would prove to be a very large liability for her.

Albel made a sudden movement and Nel watched when he gracefully cleared the gap and turned to face her expectantly.

Nel inhaled and swallowed her nervousness, and made a leap of fate across the opening. She let out a cry when she didn't feel the earth beneath her feet as she had expected, and then felt a hard tug on her arm. When she opened her eyes she found herself pressed against Albel's body, his hand still gently holding onto her forearm.

Nel looked up at his face and felt her cheeks grew warmer when she realized that Albel's other hand was located on the small of her back, preventing her from falling backward into the giant opening.

Albel stepped back and released her, turning away before she could inspect him any further.

"Thanks," she said quietly, recomposing herself.

"Whatever," he mumbled, picking up the torch that Nel had tossed across the gap before she had jumped across. "Let' go," he said, beginning to walk, not looking back to see if she was following.

Nel was following close to Albel, she couldn't reason why, but something told her to stay near him. The air in the tunnel had grown dank and dreary, and cold drafts played their way up Nel's gown, making her shiver when the light wind fluttered her skirt.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Huh?" she asked, snapping to, and looking up at the man at her side.

"Are you alright?" Albel repeated.

"I'm fine, why?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You look like you are thinking about something," he said, disguising the concern in his voice.

"Its just the weird air down here," she said, looking around at her surroundings.

"I've noticed that too," he said solemnly, instinctually touching the area where his katana would have been, and then becoming more restless when he recalled its absence.

There was a sudden loud shriek at his side, causing him to jump unnaturally, and look at Nel, who was clenching her face with her hand.

"What is it!" he asked, preparing for a fight with some unseen being.

Nel removed her hand and revealed bleeding gashes on her cheek, identical to the ones that she had received when she was attacked by the purple banshee.

She cried out again and quickly grabbed at her chest, where more bloody cuts had formed. She then arched her back and screamed in pain once more as blood began to stream down her bare back.

Albel stared wide-eyed as Nel was being assaulted by some invisible assailant. Quickly shaking his head, he snapped out of it and grabbed hold of Nel's hand and pulled her away from the area where she was being attacked, and led her down the pathway, hearing her cry out once again as the gashes on her back where crossed with new bloody wounds.

Albel had expected Nel to jerk her hand away from him after she had regained her senses, and looked at her over his shoulder when he felt no such movement. The Aquarian was looking over her shoulder as well, expecting to see the amethyst woman pursuing them, blood glistening in the torch light on her face and chest.

Albel began to slow his pace after he felt Nel stumble once or twice. He was desperately trying to think of something; he hated running away, but unarmed, and Nel being wounded as she was, what other choice did they have?

Nel looked at him curiously when he came to a stop, she seemed to have regained her fire and determination from her initial shock. She was also in a lot of pain, but didn't want to say anything about it to slow down their progress.

"You should try to do something about those cuts," Albel suggested quietly, almost sounding concerned about her. "I doubt it's very safe to walk around with gaping wounds in an area like this."

Nel nodded and then took notice of the hand still holding hers. Her cheeks, although hidden under ruby liquid, flushed fiercely as she timidly withdrew her hand from his, noting the redness on the warrior's face as well.

She began to cast a cure spell on herself, feeling more at ease after she began to feel her flesh close around the gashes that she had received when the spell was complete.

"We can't keep running away," Albel said in a serious voice, his back to her.

"But do you think we can fight her?" she asked, and then added after a pause, "Do you think we _should _fight her?"

"She attacked you, and has been trying to kill you ever since we entered this castle; I think that's a good enough reason to fight someone," he said, slight annoyance in his voice.

"You're right I guess," Nel said, surprising Albel when she didn't argue with him. "But for now, let's just keep going forward and see if this tunnel will come to an end soon."

Albel didn't say anything, but agreed with her by taking a few steps forward, and with one final look behind her, Nel followed.

"Finally!" Nel said aloud when they arrived at a colossal door. It looked ancient and was corroded by time. Two large statues stood on either side of the door, as if standing guard, both holding large, ornamental long swords.

Nel looked up from her inspection of the door when she heard a loud noise, like metal grating against stone.

"What are you doing?" Nel asked, watching Albel pull a sword from one of the statue's hands.

"You made me drop my weapon into a bottomless pit," he sourly reminded her, "I need to arm myself somehow."

Nel said nothing further about it, and returned to inspecting the massive door in front of her. She pulled on the ring that served as a door handle, and heard a loud, creaking sound as the door budged a little.

She moved her hand to the side of the ring when Albel carefully placed his hand next to hers on the metal circle, his hand jumping a little when it accidentally brushed against hers. They pulled the ring together, and the door slowly creaked open.

"No!" Nel cried disappointedly after peering through the door and seeing that instead of leading to the welcoming outdoors, it led into a large chamber.

Albel walked around the room and lit the torches that he had discovered on the walls. Soon fire light danced across the room, letting Nel take in all of the room's details.

The room was tall, and eerie shadows danced across the ceiling. A large statue that matching the two standing guard at the door loomed in the center of the great chamber. It stood as tall as the room itself; Nel figured that it was actually serving more as a support pillar than a statue.

"What are you waiting for?" Albel called to her, peeved that he was being slowed down by the speculation of her surroundings.

Nel sighed and made her way over to where he was standing. A large door stood agape, and a chilly draft rushed past her and caused her gown to swirl about her ankles.

There was a loud sound from behind them and they quickly spun around to locate the source of the sound. Before they had any time to register what had caused the sound, the same sound, only much louder, sounded directly behind them; the door had slammed shut.

Nel watched anxiously as Albel tried to yank the door open. She highly doubted that the small draft from the chamber had caused the two doors to swing closed.

She ventured to the middle of the room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the purple woman, Marina, standing silently in the door way. Nel continued to stare down the woman as a draft made her dress whip every which way, causing the fabric to make a cracking noise as it whipped fiercely about her legs; she didn't know what to do, her legs wouldn't allow her to move.

Nel readied herself when Marina emitted a glass shattering screech and began to speed at her.

"Albe-!" Nel tried to scream as the banshee struck her with enough force to send her hurtling into the large statue that supported the room, knocking the wind out of her as she slid down to the ground, piercing pain shooting down her spine.

Albel had originally spun around when he heard the phantom-like woman's warcry, and was already on his way to help her. He drew his newly acquired long sword and brought it down hard where the woman was hovering above Nel.

It struck nothing; the woman had vanished.

Nel had seen Albel raise the sword to bring it home on her ghostly attacker, and had closed her eyes out of instinct. When she opened them, she found herself looking at the point of his sword; no banshee anywhere to be seen.

She looked around her and then wasted no time getting painfully to her feet and readied herself for anything.

She spun with cat-like agility and drew her daggers from underneath her dress, glad that they were still there, when she heard the same ear shattering battle cry that Marina had let out previously. The amethyst ghost lunged for Nel once more; but this time Nel was ready.

Nel let her dagger fly and wasn't too surprised when her dagger passed through the woman's face as if there was nothing but air in front of her; she hadn't thought that physical attacks would be effective. Marina sliced at Nel with outstretched claws, leaving a long, jagged cut along her throat, leaving Nel grasping at her wound, unable to protect herself.

She heard her name being called and then felt an arm wrap around her waist and pull her backward, out of range of the banshee's flailing claws. She looked up with sparkling eyes at Albel, who was currently releasing her.

"Distract her; I have to heal myself," she choked out, already beginning to cast the spell, and Marina now darting at her at full speed.

Albel was well aware that physical attacks would inflict no harm upon the apparition, and his mind raced as he tried to think of some plan to distract the woman from attempting to tear Nel's throat out.

"Hey, you purple ghost bitch, you want a _real _challenge?" he called to the banshee. "That's right, come and get me, maggot," he continued to provoke her after seeing her turn her attention to him, and then quickly sidestepped the woman when she made an annoyed sweep at him.

At least his colorful vocabulary came in use for something, Nel thought to herself, watching the two move about each other as if they were performing some sort of dark dance as she waited for her spell to be ready enough to cast; it wasn't going fast enough.

"Watch out!"

Nel turned her attention from her spell and looked up after the warning reached her ears; Marina was right on top of her!

The next thing she felt was her body sliding across the hard, tiled ground. She lay, gasping and still bleeding from the wound on her throat that she hadn't gotten a chance to heal, on the floor, too stunned to lift her head. She cried out in pain when some form of aura engulfed her body, preventing her from moving even a finger.

Marina hovered parallel, inches above Nel, her eyes glowing with yellow light, more so than usual now that she was holding Nel pinned to the floor with some form of hellish force. Nel tried to move away, but the energy keeping her in place was too strong to allow movement of any sort.

"Nel! Hang on, I'm coming," Albel called, rushing to aid her.

He emitted a sound as if he was suddenly being choked, and out of the corner of her eye, Nel could see that he was hovering a few feet off of the ground, grasping at his throat and definitely not looking too amused.

Nel tried to call to him, but stopped when the invisible net around her tightened. She was beginning to grow very light headed from the loss of blood from her throat; she knew she didn't have too much time to rectify the problem, or die from blood loss. Turning her attention back to her harasser, she noticed that the phantom's arm was raised high above her, poised to strike a fatal blow.

Time seemed to suddenly slow, Marina's deadly claws barreled down at her at what Nel knew was lightning speed, but it all seemed so leisurely. When the claws ripped the skin above her heart open, it didn't hurt like Nel has expected it would have. Blood slowly began to spray from her chest and into the air, pain just now making its presence known to her as the blood splattered her face and the area around her body, everything still too surreal to believe.

There was a sudden blinding white light.

After the initial loss of sight due to the luminosity, Nel refocused her eyes and time seemed to regress back to its normal pace; however, things where far from normal.

What is happening, Nel thought to herself as she lay limp on the floor, feeling the restraint of the invisible force no longer pressing her into the ground. The room was back to its normal lighting, all traces of bright light long since faded. She was then pulled into a sitting position, supported by Albel's arm behind her back; he had obviously been released when the light had exploded through the room, just as she had been.

Now sitting, she groggily took notice that the pendant that Nellexis had given her was faintly glowing around her neck, right above the gruesome opening above her heart, and that one more person was present in the room with them; Nellexis.

"Marina, you must stop this madness!" Nel watched Nellexis cry to her sister frantically.

Marina, who had quickly moved to the other side of the room to avoid the light, was now glaring at the white clad being in front of her with a look of pure blood lust. A loud shriek was sounded and Marina rushed at her true sister with more passion than she had ever attacked Nel with.

Time seemed to slow once again, and Nel watched from the safety of Albel's arms, as Nellexis embraced Marina rather than moving out of her way, or allowing the attack to strike her. Shock crossed Marina's face and she struggled to get away from her sister, but seemed to visibly weaken within her grasp.

Nel and Albel were both amazed at what they saw in front of them, Marina was changing! She was turning back into the delicate looking pale-haired girl that Nel had seen in her trip to the past.

"Marina," Nellexis softly crooned, pulling her now fully transformed sister away from her a little so that she could look at her face, "that's the little sister that I remember."

"Nelly.. I'm so sorry," Marina said, pressing herself into he sister's arms, "For everything, all the people, Mother and Father," she paused, "and for you Nellexis. I am so sorry for what I did to you."

"All is forgiven, Marina. Let us forget about all of that and leave this place…together. What do you say Marina?" Nellexis said, once again looking into her sister's face.

"Alright," Marina said, a faint smile appearing through a tear streaked face.

"I told you that that necklace contained a sister's love," Nel heard Nellexis say kindly, sounding very distant, before she and Marina faded away, leaving her alone with Albel in the torch-lit chamber.

A warm light began to glow in the core of the pendant around Nel's neck, healing the deadly wounds on her body. The healing light engulfed both her and Albel, and although still dangerously weak, she began to feel revitalized from the immense amount of blood that she had lost. She felt herself growing dizzy, and then fell back further into Albel's arms, and closed her eyes. She was very comfortable, and soon found her body forcing itself to slumber in attempts to regain some of its lost energy.

Water was pelting her face when she began to come to, making her eyes flutter wildly as she focused her eyes and looked around to gain her bearings. Her legs where straddled around something, and, after gaining complete consciousness, she realized that it was none other than Albel the Wicked. At some point he must have piggybacked her all the way outside.

"Albel?" she said, although he was already aware that she was awake.

He stopped and set her down onto the ground. She looked around and saw the castle looming not too far behind her, and the same thunder storm still raging overhead and spilling it's tears to the ground below.

"You just ruined all hope that I had for a peaceful trip back to the others," Albel joked, a small smirk playing on his face.

Nel couldn't help but smile at his comment; even after all of the events in the castle, Albel was still Albel. She felt her face tint a little as she gazed at the tall warrior in front of her, what was it that she was feeling as of late whenever she looked at him?

"Hey, Albel?" she started quietly, turning her eyes to the ground.

"Yeah?" he asked, curious about her behavior.

Nel surprised herself when she stepped forward and placed her arms _willingly _around the Glyphian in an embrace. She felt Albel's skin jump a little in shock, but then, slowly, and almost timidly, wrap his arms around her as well.

"Thanks for everything," she murmured softly into his chest.

"Don't mention it," he said, his voice obviously guarded, and his face slightly flushing. "Let's get out of here," he said, pulling away from the Aquarian, not looking her directly in the eyes.

Nel gave one final look to the castle that had tormented her, and swore that she saw both Nellexis and Marina, hand in hand, waving to her from the window of the grand ball room, where the fateful night, that entwined her life with theirs, took place many years ago.

She ran a few steps to catch up to Albel, who had, yet again, left without her. She didn't quite understand why she did what she did next, but she cautiously took hold of Albel's hand when she had reached his side. Albel looked down at her strangely, but made no move to withdraw his hand from hers.

"Right, let's go find the others," Nel said, knowing that things were permanently changed between her and Albel Nox.

What will the others think of this, Nel thought as she and Albel walked hand in hand, resuming their search for their comrades once again. But one thing was for sure, Nel refused to enter another castle, unless it was that of Aquios or Ariglyph.

* * *

So, whatcha think? It took me forever to write this chapter, sorry. There was a series of misfortunate events (Microsoft word breaking, email crashing, becoming emotionaly unstable for two days, the Alkaline Trio concert, and then a docotor's appointment) Buuuuuttt, i finally did it! Yay! I hope you all liked it, please review, being as they make me smile and want to give random people hugs, heh heh. 

Thank you all so much for taking time to read this


End file.
